IRVING FISHER AND THE MECHANISTIC CHARACTER OF TWENTIETH CENTURY ACCOUNTING THOUGHT

1995 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Mouck
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World View ◽  
Neoclassical Economic ◽  
Neoclassical Economics ◽  
Newtonian Mechanics ◽  
Neoclassical Economic Theory

This paper provides an overview of the influence of Newtonian mechanics on the development of neoclassical economic theory and highlights Fisher's role in the popularization of the resulting mechanical conception of economics. The paper also portrays Fisher's The Nature of Capital and Income — a work which has been aptly characterized as the “first economic theory of accounting” — as the first move toward the colonization of accounting by economics. The result of Fisher's influence has been a paradigmatic linkage between the Newtonian world view of science, neoclassical economics, and mainstream academic accounting thought. The picture that emerges from this linkage is then used as a backdrop against which the emerging challenges to economics-based accounting thought are highlighted.

A Set of Axioms for Neoclassical Economics and the Methodological Status of the Equilibrium Concept

1992 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnis Vilks
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
General Equilibrium ◽  
Neoclassical Economic ◽  
Neoclassical Economics ◽  
Equilibrium Concept ◽  
Equilibrium Existence ◽  
Existence Proofs ◽  
Neoclassical Economic Theory ◽  
Methodological Status

It is widely agreed that the concept of general equilibrium and, in particular, general equilibrium existence proofs play a central role within the neoclassical approach to economic theory. There is much less agreement, however, on the concepts of general equilibrium and of neoclassical economic theory themselves.

Macroeconomic Instability and the “Natural” Processes in early Neoclassical Economics

1984 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Mirowski
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
Macroeconomic Fluctuations ◽  
Neoclassical Economic ◽  
Neoclassical Economics ◽  
Natural Disturbances ◽  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
Neoclassical Economic Theory

It may seem odd to disinter an economic theory—in this instance, William Stanley Jevons's claim that sunspots caused macroeconomic fluctuations—which no one now believes or much cares about. In fact, my purpose is not to scoff at a dead theory, but to use it as a pretext to discuss the following issues: economic historians often have suggested a dichotomy between a premodem and industrial macroeconomy, with the premodern economy largely at the mercy of weather and other natural phenomena; the dichotomy is rooted in early neoclassical economic theory (here restricting ourselves to Jevons); there is little historical evidence that premodern macro fluctuations were caused by natural disturbances, such as the weather (here restricting ourselves to the case of England); and the above three theses have some interesting implications for the way economic policy is conceived, both then and now.

The Emerging Standard Neurobiological Model of Decision Making

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shih-Wei Wu ◽  
Paul W. Glimcher
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Economic Theory ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Neoclassical Economic ◽  
Internal Representations ◽  
Neurobiological Model ◽  
Neoclassical Economic Theory ◽  
The Brain

The standard neurobiological model of decision making has evolved, since the turn of the twenty-first century, from a confluence of economic, psychological, and neurosci- entific studies of how humans make choices. Two fundamental insights have guided the development of this model during this period, one drawn from economics and the other from neuroscience. The first derives from neoclassical economic theory, which unambiguously demonstrated that logically consistent choosers behave “as if” they had some internal, continuous, and monotonic representation of the values of any choice objects under consideration. The second insight derives from neurobiological studies suggesting that the brain can both represent, in patterns of local neural activity, and compare, by a process of interneuronal competition, internal representations of value associated with different choices.

Shall I Compare Thee to a Minkowski-Ricardo-Leontief-Metzler Matrix of the Mosak-Hicks Type?: Or, Rhetoric, Mathematics, and the Nature of Neoclassical Economic Theory

1987 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Mirowski
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Differential Calculus ◽  
Neoclassical Economic ◽  
Real Analysis ◽  
The Past ◽  
And Topology ◽  
Neoclassical Economic Theory ◽  
Six Elements ◽  
Metzler Matrix

Is rhetoric just a new and trendy way to épater les bourgeois? Unfortunately, I think that the newfound interest of some economists in rhetoric, and particularly Donald McCloskey in his new book and subsequent responses to critics (McCloskey, 1985a, 1985b), gives that impression. After economists have worked so hard for the past five decades to learn their sums, differential calculus, real analysis, and topology, it is a fair bet that one could easily hector them about their woeful ignorance of the conjugation of Latin verbs or Aristotle's Six Elements of Tragedy. Moreover, it has certainly become an academic cliché that economists write as gracefully and felicitously as a hundred monkeys chained to broken typewriters. The fact that economists still trot out Keynes's prose in their defense is itself an index of the inarticulate desperation of an inarticulate profession.

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